{"id":27232,"date":"2021-02-17T08:26:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T12:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=27232"},"modified":"2021-02-20T23:41:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T03:41:44","slug":"religious-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Violence: How Religion Fosters Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is religious violence? Why does religious violence occur?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious violence is when people enact violence in the name of religious doctrine or goals. Studies find that it is extremely easy to become violent in the name of religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about religious violence and why it happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Fostering of Religious Violence and <\/strong>Hatred<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Because religion teaches people that they have access to a divine truth that can never be questioned, it inevitably breeds intolerance toward those who don\u2019t share the same beliefs<\/strong>. After all, those who don\u2019t share your faith are enemies of God and his holy word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religion is one of the great sources of in-group loyalty, but also hatred and fear of the other. The Israeli psychologist George Tamarin found that 66 percent of Israeli schoolchildren, most of whom were raised with the stories of the Old Testament, expressed support for Joshua\u2019s slaughter and enslavement of the people of Jericho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children who defended these actions did so overwhelmingly on religious grounds, claiming that it was justified because the victims were heathens and unbelievers. Interestingly, when Tamarin presented the facts of the case but changed the context so that it was a Chinese <\/em>general committing war atrocities, the numbers reversed; only 7 percent approved of the action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intolerance bred by religion can escalate into violence, which, according to some theists, is justified\u2014even moral<\/em>. Whether it\u2019s an anti-abortion fanatic murdering a doctor in the name of rescuing innocent \u201cbabies\u201d or the 9\/11 hijackers killing nearly 3,000 people because they believed that they would be divinely rewarded in the afterlife, religion has a unique power to justify that which would otherwise be indefensible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that those who commit acts of religiously inspired violence are not \u201cevil\u201d or \u201cpsychopaths\u201d (however malevolent their deeds might be). To write them off this way is to absolve religion of any responsibility for the poisoning effect it has on the human mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick exploration of just a few of the injustices perpetrated by religious extremists shows how dangerous faith can be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is religious violence? Why does religious violence occur? Religious violence is when people enact violence in the name of religious doctrine or goals. Studies find that it is extremely easy to become violent in the name of religion. Read more about religious violence and why it happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24],"tags":[210],"class_list":["post-27232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-society","tag-the-god-delusion","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Violence: How Religion Fosters Hate - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is religious violence and where does it come from? 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